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5 typical mistakes brands are doing online

April 22, 2012

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You know the saying what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger – technically speaking in our virtual very connect world – that doesn’t work much – in a world where brands are no longer in control, where consumers have a right, and brands want to communicate rather than dictate even the biggest brands out there are making mistakes. Here are a few that I’ve managed to notice lately:

(1) Running special offerings/contests all the time

In social media keeping the conversation alive is key but if you are just going to bribe your fans on and forth with contests, giveaways, freebies and discounts they will become part of your community for that and that only – that’s not a conversation, that’s devaluating your brand one post at a time.

(2) Blocking negative feedback

Although tempting to an overwhelmed community manager – you should never ever block negative feedback. In the digital world transparency is key, if you are wrong – learn how to admit your mistakes before some exaggerates the story

(3) Press Releases belong to traditional press and not online

When I see people publish press releases online it makes me roll my eyes at another PR stunt of pushing information online … I feel that PR agencies think they can still push press releases to the digital sphere the way they do with the traditional media – it’s time to wake up this is an online sphere for a conversation – those long boring yada yada yada issues of yours kill the conversation – opt for interesting engaging, short posts instead

(4) Taking forever to respond

I feel that some brands are insecure about replying instantly to a fan/user inquiry. While some need to get approval before they respond, others aren’t allowed to go with a simple “We can check and get back to you” which defeats the whole purpose of being online. If I were to post on a brands page and not get a response within a 30 min to 1 hour span, I’d just pick up the phone and get the info I need from an operator or something – defeats the purpose of an online post, don’t you think?

(5) Counting those LIKES

So you have hit a 100K Milestone on Facebook, then what? Is acquiring a fanbase proper measurement for your ROI? No! I hate it when people think that the number of Likes on the page or the ‘People Talking about This’ Metric is what evaluates the success of their online precense, it’s not. Write clear objectives of who you are and why you’re online and measure accordingly. A good measurement of your ROI is how much negative sentiment of your brand where you able to decrease/transform into positive sentiment